STMicro tops MEMS market ranking

The traditional gap between the big four MEMS makers and the rest of the
pack narrowed this year, as strong demand for more MEMS sensors in both
consumer and automotive markets drove strong growth across a range of
suppliers. Knowles Electronics saw better than 20 percent growth to
climb into fourth place with some $440 million in revenues from MEMS
microphones, closing in on HP. Panasonic and Denso were close behind
with more than $350 million in MEMS sales in their largely automotive
markets.

Chinese electret microphone supplier AAC made the top
companies ranking for the first time as its MEMS microphone sales jumped
90 percent to about $65 million, as it became the second source
microphone supplier for the iPhone. InvenSense saw some 30 percent
growth as it ramped up production of its inertial sensors and Triquint
saw a 27 percent increase in revenues from its BAW filters.

The
traditional MEMS market of micromirrors for projectors and for inkjet
heads have matured and slowed. The inkjet market has turned away from
replaceable heads towards fixed-head technologies. That hit revenues at
both the inkjet companies and their manufacturing partners, said Yole.

Yole
defines MEMS as three dimensional structures made using semiconductor
processes, but with primarily a mechanical as well as electronic
function. Yole's definition of MEMS includes magnetometers and all
microfluidics, including those made using polymer materials.

Missing from the article -increase in %market capture of fabless vs. IDM MEMS companies. It seems that the big MEMS are in the IDM camp but encouraging trends like that of InvenSense bodes well for fabless.
MP Divakar

Nice to see an industry growing! It should not surprise anyone though, given the widespread proliferation of tablets, smart phones, etc that employ MEMs. I was wondering what was the differentiator for ST vs the rest of the competition? Is it price, performance, volume, particular design wins, does anyone know?